Tag Archives: Gott

I’m joining the Genealogy Blog Party at Little Bytes of Life. The theme for this month is Time Travel to an Ancestor!

Who is the ancestor you will meet?

What question(s) do you need him/her to answer?

Is there a problem you can help your ancestor solve?

Will you reveal your true identity to your ancestor? If so, how will your visit impact the future? (Remember what happened to Rose when she went back to meet her father.)

Will you bring your ancestor to the future to meet his/her descendants? What will be the outcome, if you do?

There are a few ancestors I would like to meet, but I’ll start with my second great-grandmother Mrs. Elizabeth E. Chase née Gott born in 1854.

What question(s) do you need him/her to answer?
My questions for her would be rather uncomfortable to ask a stranger. I can’t think of a polite way to ask her, how did you met your husband and were you the “other woman” for the first ten or so years of your relationship?

You see, she did not marry the father of her son until he was about ten and on their marriage registration he listed their marriage as his second. Granted, the marriage following her death was also listed as his second, but I digress. There are other pressing questions…

Why was your first son born in West Springfield Massachusetts when you lived in Lowell Massachusetts at the time? Who did you stay with? Did you have family there? Did your husband, who was not yet your legal husband, have something to do with the deaths of the following three children who all died before their first birthday? I realize infant mortality was high at the time, but I ask because before you died you took your eleven year-old son and ran away from home.

Your husband hired a detective to find you but the detective quit after the first day telling the newspaper that you had good reason to leave. Your brother also told the paper that you were afraid of your husband, but had arranged for a meeting between you and your husband for the week before body was found. A meeting which, as it turns out, you were unable to attend. The discovery of your body made the fourth and fifth pages of the Boston Daily Globe, and your story was covered by a few other papers. You were found drowned. Your body was removed from the Tremont canal and according to the undertaker had been in the water for a week.

From page 5 of The Boston Daily Globe—Thursday, October 11, 1894:

It Is still a mystery where Mrs Chase was drowned, although her body was found in the Tremont canal.

All the canals were drawn Sunday, and superintendent Cheney says It would be impossible for the body to be concealed at any point without being brought to the surface by the swift currents.

Mrs Chase, it is thought, may have been temporarily insane as tho result of worriment.

The undertaker says her body must have been In the water a week.

From page 4 of The Boston Daily Globe—Thursday, October 11, 1894:

District officer Neal of Lynn was In Lowell this morning to make inquiries regarding Mrs Chase’s death. It is understood, he was satisfied there was nothing which required the attention of the police.

Is there a problem you can help your ancestor solve?
I can’t help the feeling that maybe Mr. Chase wasn’t such a great guy. In fact to my modern senses, reading between the lines of the many newspaper articles surrounding her death, he seems downright shady. If I could I’d find a way to get her away from him and keep her from falling into the same trap again.

Will you reveal your true identity to your ancestor? If so, how will your visit impact the future?
I think considering my line of questions I would have to reveal my identity to have any hope for answers. If I were successful in saving her from what seems to be an abusive husband maybe she would live a longer life. A life as pleasant and fulfilling as the time she lived in allowed.

I knew nothing of my great-grandfather, Frederick Cobb Chase. Growing up all I had ever heard is that he was from California. In 2003 I asked my grandfather about his parents, but by that time he was in a nursing home with Alzheimer’s. I was given the full names of my great-grandparents and told that my great-grandfather was born in Lowell Massachusetts. He died when his son, my grandfather was 12. It took me ten years to gather enough information about my great-grandfather to build a life sketch and find the names of his parents, my second great-grandparents.

It turns out Frederick Cobb Chase, was actually born in West Springfield, Hampden, Massachusetts on the twenty-first day of August 1882 to a carpenter, Daniel Chase and Elizabeth Gott. His father was born in Boston Massachusetts. His mother was born in Lowell Massachusetts.

On the fourth day of October 1894 Frederick’s mother died by drowning at the age of 40. Frederick was just 12. Frederick’s father remarried a year later to Helen M. Burns. Frederick’s stepmother was 19, only six years older than him. Daniel was 48 years old, though the marriage record shows 42. Helen’s parents were John Burns and Sadie M, both immigrants from Scotland.

It’s not clear if the Frederick C. Chase found in the 1900 census is the correct one. If it is him, he was living as a lodger with Irish immigrants John and Mary Dwyer on 43 Tremont Street, Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts and working as a bell boy. Mr. Dwyer worked as a manager at a theater. Also at the residence was a servant and several other lodgers.

Frederick’s father, Daniel died at the age of 56 on the second of December 1903. The primary cause was “hematurea” which has lasted ten days. A contributory cause of death was, “stomatitus”. His occupation at the time was furniture dealer. Daniel’s wife of eight years, Helen M. Chase was the informant for his death certificate.

Eleven days later, on the thirtieth of December 1903 Frederick married Carrie H Dawson in Nashua, Hillsborough, New Hampshire. Frederick lists his mother’s name as Elizabeth West, which was her name from her first marriage. His occupation entered as “home at present”. Carrie is the daughter of George Dawson from New York and Emma C. Dawson nee Webster from Massachusetts.

By the time of the 1910 census, Frederick was working as a piano tuner and rented a house at 1768 Atlantic Avenue. The street name shown on the census isn’t clear, but was located near State Street in Long Beach, Los Angeles, California. He was living with Helen N. Chase who was listed as his wife of nine years and two years his senior. It shows that there was one child born, but not living. Helen N. was born in Massachusetts from Scottish immigrants. No documentation of a marriage to Helen has been found.

Frederick’s wife Carrie was still living in Massachusetts with her parents during the 1910 census. Her name listed as Carrie H. D. Chase.

The twelfth of September 1918 Frederick filled out a draft registration card. In it his name was spelled Freddrick Cobb Chace. He resided at 4143 Vann Ness Drive Los Angeles, California and was a self-employed piano tuner. He lists Carrie H. Chace as his nearest living relative, but did not give an address. In the notes it said they were separated but not divorced.

Frederick Cobb Chace married Wanda Hannah Proebstel in Santa Ana on the eleventh day of November 1919. He was 37 and she was 21. Wanda was born in Washington State. Her father Francis M. Probstel was born in Oregon and her mother, Rosamond Chamberlian was born in Iowa. It was Wanda’s first marriage. Both were living at 4143 Van Ness Ave in Los Angeles, California. Frederick was shown to be previously married and now divorced, however no divorce record has been found for his marriage with Carrie. His occupation continued as piano tuner.

In 1920 Frederick still lived at 4143 Van Ness Ave with his wife Wanda, but by 1930 they had moved to 2107 Meadow Valley Terrace with their two children ages 9 and 6. Their house was valued at $7,500, which in 2014 dollars would be $101,620.20. Current Zillow estimate on the house is $1,166,872. They along with most of their neighbors owned a radio. About half of their neighbors were born in the United States. The other half were from places such as Russia, Romania, Germany, Holland, and Irish Free State.

The home of Frederick Cobb Chase family in 1930. Image capture of 2107 Meadow Valley Terrace Los Angeles California by Google maps.

I have his date of death as the twenty-first of January 1931, but I failed to record a citation for that and can no longer find a source for that information. I’m sending paperwork in for a certified copy of his death certificate.

My uncle, Frederick’s grandson, told me Frederick was a musician, and had his own band. He said he had heard Frederick had made a couple of records, and that he was the conductor of the Los Angeles Symphony Orchestra. But at this time I have not been able to confirm Frederick being in a band, producing any records, nor being a conductor of the Los Angeles Symphony Orchestra. The website for the Los Angeles Symphony does not show their history, but according to Wikipedia they only ran from 1974 to 1979. He is not listed as a conductor for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, which began in 1919. I sent them an email, but have not received a response.

Frederick’s first wife Carrie continued to live with her parents and younger brother in 1920. She worked as a sales girl in the confectionery industry still living as Carrie H. D. Chase and married. I could not find her in 1930, but found her again in 1940 living with her aunt Mattie and uncle J Alton Paine in West Bridgewater Town, Plymouth, Massachusetts. Her prior place of residence, Avon, Norfolk, Massachusetts. She was listed as single but still had the last name Chase and worked as a cashier in retail grocery.

** Update 13 June 2016 **
That was not the correct Carrie H. Chase I found in the 1940 census. I thought Mattie was Carrie’s maternal aunt Addie. She is not.